Friday, August 17, 2007

It's been five months since the Field Poll surveyed California voters about the 2008 presidential race. That's an eternity for political junkies like me; we've been jonesing for fresh data. What's a wonk to do? Gorge himself on lesser polls with unsound methodology? Yes, it's been the demographic equivalent of bad fast food fries since March, but now pollsters Mervin Field and Mark DiCamillo have laid some filet mignon on us.

By the way, DiCamillo promises us new poll numbers on a more regular basis from here on in. Can't really blame him for a little bit of summer down time before the campaign intensifies. "We'll be very busy from now on," he told me, spitting out fresh numbers between now and California's February 5th primary.

The leaderboard in the new Field Poll is no big surprise: Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are dominating their respective primary fields. But there are a couple of interesting wrinkles behind the numbers (to see the poll results, click on our Poll of the Week on the Sovern Nation home page. You can also compare Field's findings to the poll done by Survey USA in California earlier this month. And to hear pollster DiCamillo talk about the survey results, go to Featured Audio on the SovNat home page. Our podcast with him should be at the top of the column).

For one thing, Hillary Clinton seems to be right. She told me last month, when I asked her how she could possibly win when half the country hates her, that she wins people over one at a time. She said New Yorkers were skeptical about her too, but now they love her. That when people meet her, and hear her speak, they are impressed, and become Clinton converts. Well, at least in California, it does seem to be happening. She's pulling away from Barack Obama here. In March, when Golden State liberals were buzzing about Obama, he trailed Hillary 41% to 28%. Now the bloom seems to be off the Barack rose, and he's fallen to just 19%, while she's risen to 49%. And since everyone else in the poll has stayed at roughly where he was five months ago, Clinton's new support seems to be coming directly out of Obama's camp, which means she's pulling liberals away from him. Hillary is also winning across the board; Obama does best among younger voters, better-educated voters, and African Americans, but Clinton still beats him soundly in all those groups. Yes, Hillary is winning the black vote in California: she's got 52%, and he's got 28.

On the Republican side, Rudy still leads, but his numbers are static, and he'd better keep an eye on those bubbling under. Giuliani had 34% in March; he's got 35% now. His biggest rival in the spring has had a summer of discontent, and is barely a factor now. Yes, those who were sure last winter that John McCain would be the next president of the United States were probably also investing in subprime mortgage bundlers. McCain has fallen faster than California home sales. He's plummeted from 24% in the previous survey to just nine percent now. He's been displaced as the anti-Rudy by Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson, essentially tied for second. On the one hand, there's a lot here for Romney to crow about. Those who aren't paying close attention still don't know who he is, and a measly one percent of them say they'd vote for him. But of those who ARE following the race closely, 21% like Romney, which means he's scoring in the debates and impressing voters on the stump. That bodes well for the Massachusetts Mormon, and suggest he could close the gap with Giuliani as we get closer to the primaries.

On the other hand, though, the Christian conservatives who often determine the Republican nominee want nothing to do with Romney. Of those who consider themselves born-again Christians, 37% prefer Giuliani, 16% like Fred Thompson, 12% pick McCain, 15% split among the second-tier Republicans, and only seven percent back Romney. Those who identify as strongly conservative also lean towards Rudy, with 38% in his corner, and Romney and Thompson tied at 16%. That means there's an opening for Tennessee's Thompson (if he ever declares and gets in the race already!), to outflank Romney on the right and emerge as the most viable challenger to Giuliani.

We're just over five months from the primary. There will be many more polls, a ridiculous number of debates, and God only knows how many gaffes and controversies. Nothing in these numbers dissuades me from my current belief (held for several months now) that the nominees will be Clinton and Romney. But there's still some good stuff to chew on.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

A beaming, feisty Hillary Clinton told a raucous AFL-CIO debate crowd at Chicago's Soldier Field Tuesday "if you want a winner, if you want to take on (the Republicans), I'm your girl!" Now that'll thaw the ice princess image. Never mind that Ivy League feminist stuff - this was the Midwest, and Hillary is starting to feel her oats as the frontrunner. Shucks, she's just a corn-fed country girl at heart - the girl next door, by way of Yale Law School, the White House, and the U.S. Senate. Hillary is enjoying being out in front, and is starting to nurture that gnawing sense of inevitability that's boosting her campaign and dogging all the others. Now it's time to woo the good folks of Iowa and New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina - salt of the earth Democrats who may need a dose of girlish charm to knock that outdated image of Stiff Hillary out of their minds before Election Day.

Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani hopes his daughter Caroline is STILL his girl. While America's Mayor was in Iowa telling Hawkeye State Republicans he's their best hope if they want to protect their children and keep their families safe...his own teenaged daughter was playing Rebel Without A Dad. Not old enough to vote yet, Caroline signed up for Barack Obama's Facebook friends group "One Million Strong For Barack," listing her political views as "liberal." As a potential First Daughter-in-waiting, Caroline is supposed to be part of the Two Strong for Rudy, firmly and proudly in Papa's camp, along with her brother Andrew. Except the Giuliani kids are apparently still miffed at Dad for dumping their mother and marrying Judy Nathan. Caroline is only 17, bound for Harvard this fall, and is certainly entitled to her own political identity, not to mention whatever feelings she has about her father and his divorces. But for the conservative voters Giuliani needs to win the Republican nomination, it's another chink in his already battered armor. Three marriages, pro-choice, pro-gay rights, he wears a dress and he can't even win the votes of his own kids? That won't play in Peoria. Or Paducah. Or Pahrump. For the record, as soon as Slate discovered Caroline Giuliani's treasonous perfidy, she quit Obama's group, and announced that she had only signed up as an "expression of interest" and not because she plans to vote for the Illinois Democrat next year. Rudy told reporters "My daughter, I love very much" and then asked them to respect the privacy of his family.

Now Americans are used to the foibles of First Families - in fact, we pretty much expect them. Billy Carter, Donald Nixon, Roger Clinton, the Bush twins in a bar - whatever. Oh, those silly presidential relatives - how embarrassing! It's reassuring when our leaders' families are as dysfunctional as our own. We enjoy their misadventures the same way we obsess about the train-wreck lives of certain celebrities -it makes us feel better about our own problems, minor in comparison to the woes of those on the grand stage. But even Mary Cheney still voted for her dad - twice, as far as we know. The president's son/daughter/brother/mistress may fall down drunk on the White House lawn, but they're still drinking with the President's party. They are not supposed to join the loyal opposition.

The frontrunner's crown seems to lie heavier by the day on Giuliani's head...while Hillary wears hers like the homecoming queen, letting her hair down as she gets ready for a hayride to the Iowa caucuses.

About Doug

Doug began his career as a copy boy at the New York Times & then moved to California to play in a rock band. After hundreds of gigs and one Indie album failed to make him a rock star, Doug returned to journalism, working for AP Radio & San Francisco station K-101. He did a brief stint at KGO before joining KCBS in 1990. Doug covers politics for KCBS, and also does special features and investigations. He has won more than 200 broadcast journalism awards, including a duPont-Columbia Special Citation, 10 National Headliner Awards, five national Edward R. Murrow Awards & a record eight awards from the national Society of Professional Journalists - more than any other reporter, in any medium. Doug was also the first three-time winner of the AP's Reporter of the Year Award for California/Nevada & has won it four times overall.
Doug was born in New York City, raised in Manhattan and Wisconsin, and has a degree in History from Brown University. He lives in Oakland with his wife, Dr. Sara Newmann. And yes, he still plays music! He is the bass player for the Eyewitness Blues Band, made up of broadcasters from KCBS and CBS-5 TV.